A Glorious Day In This Man's Wasteland
by OlafIsoherranen
Summary: When members of the Atlantis Expedition stumble onto a planet ravaged by nuclear war, only one thing is certain - the Pegasus galaxy will never be the same again.  Crossover between Fallout 3/NV & Stargate: Atlantis.  Eventual LW/Shep
1. A Glorious Day

**Author's Notes and Story Background Information:**

I've had this story floating around in my head for the past week and I can't seem to get rid of it… so I'm just going to go ahead and give it a go. My writing is still (in my opinion) quite bad, so bear with me. I've got a rough outline of how I want this story to pan out, so hopefully updates will not be far and few between.

This story is a Fallout 3 & New Vegas crossover with Stargate Atlantis. I haven't played the 1st Fallout, and I'm barely a tenth of the way through the second one so there won't be much mention of them or their content barring the occasional reference. It would be highly implausible for there to be two Americas with two cold wars in two separate galaxies, so some names, geographical locations and history will be changed for the Fallout setting. For example, instead of the common catch phrase, "Uncle Sam wants YOU," it would be "Uncle Jim wants YOU." Though the ideological differences remained roughly the same, communists aren't called commies and there was no country called China.

Also, the ending in my Fallout 3 and New Vegas storylines are very non-canon and heavily AU.

Imagine if the Lone Wanderer in Fallout 3 had sided with the Enclave, and together they had taken over the Capitol Wasteland, the Pitt, and forged an alliance with House and the Courier… yes, it's that good. The NCR is still around in the Core region and is allied with the Brotherhood of Steel in its areas of influence (the enemy of my enemy is my friend type of arrangement). The Legion as an effective fighting force has been completely wiped out by the Enclave, with their capital city Flagstaff leveled, and nothing left but scattered remnants that've degenerated into petty raiding bands.

Mutants of all types (ghouls, super mutants, deathclaws, etc) have been driven out or eradicated in Enclave held territory with scattered pockets surviving in isolation. Washington D.C.(or rather, Aurora D.C. – the D.C. also stands for something else) is in the process of being "cleansed" and rebuilt, with Enclave Special Ops teams going from building to building and disposing of any raiders, mutants, and the occasional Brotherhood hold out. The Brotherhood of Steel in the Capitol Wasteland was effectively annihilated by an orbital strike on the Citadel ordered by the Lone Wanderer, though a handful of Paladins under Sarah Lyon and Star Paladin Cross managed to survive, and are currently waging a small guerilla war against Enclave forces.

As far as Atlantis goes, I believe somewhere in Season 2-3ish is the appropriate timeframe (I'll figure out the specifics further into the story if the need arises). The main points are that Weir is alive, Carson is alive, Ford is gone and Ronon is on the team.

Anyways, onwards to the story and remember – constructive criticism and reviews of any kind are greatly appreciated!

* * *

><p><strong>The City of Atlantis, Control Tower – <strong>

A certain Rodney McKay was feeling rather egotistical today. A normal feeling for anyone who had just accomplished something major, but as any expedition member on Atlantis could tell you, if there was anything Rodney McKay _didn't_ need, it was an ego boost.

The reason for Rodney's bigger than usual ego on this particular day was his discovery of what he believed to be the location of a planet with a ZPM hidden on it in the city's database.

"Elizabeth, you'll never believe what I just found!" shouted an obviously excited Rodney, after practically sprinting into Weir's office. "I was going through the Ancient database, and I know we've had our hits and misses before but this is a sure thing! I mean, well, almost a sure thing, you can never be certain with the Ancients and -"

"Rodney! Calm down!" exclaimed a surprised Weir, holding up her hands. "What is it you've found?"

"What have I found? Only the location of not just one, but **two** Zed-PMs, the most potent power source known to man! Not to mention something we desperately need if we're going to power this city as well as, oh I don't know, survive against any Wraith attack!"

"What's going on? Did Rodney blow up another solar system?" a rather amused sounding voice coming from the doorway asked.

Sheppard had been heading up to the Control Tower to see if Rodney wanted to join him and the rest of the team for dinner in the mess when he'd heard raised voices coming from Weir's office and decided to investigate. After all, he _was_ the commanding military officer of Atlantis.

"I'll let Rodney tell you the good news himself." said an amused looking Weir.

"Sheppard, I think – no I'm sure that I've found the location of two fully charged Zed-PMs."

"As far as I know, Rodney, we've already gone through the list of planets that had hidden ZPMs on them that the other Elizabeth gave us. Most of which didn't have any technology on them whatsoever, not to mention a Zero Point Module, I might add."

"Not that it was her fault, of course." John quickly added, seeing the look on Weir's face.

"Yes yes I know all of that, obviously. I found these two while I was doing a completely unrelated search in the Atlantis database for leads on any other possibly advanced civilizations out in the Pegasus galaxy." exclaimed an already exasperated Rodney. "I found this in a side note in an Ancient entry on a social experiment they were performing on some back water planet in an isolated corner of Pegasus."

"A **side note**, Rodney?" said Weir, raising an eyebrow.

"I know what you're thinking, but trust me on this. If the database is right, then chances are the Wraith have never been to this planet, given its relatively isolated location. Best case scenario? Not only do we get two Zed-PMs to power Atlantis, but we also get a technologically advanced ally as well."

"What about the social experiment the Ancients were performing, Rodney?" asked Weir.

"That's the catch. There wasn't much information other than a mention of putting two diametrically opposed ideologies on different continents. Apparently the Ancients left two fully charged Zed-PMs on the planet when the people there had advanced enough, one for each ideology." Rodney shrugged. "Though given what we've seen so far in Pegasus, it's far more likely that they've either regressed to the level of iron age technology, or been wiped out by the Wraith. Meaning that either they neither need nor care about the Zed-PMs, or that they aren't around to complain about us taking them. It's pretty much a win-win scenario for us regardless."

"At the very least, it's worth checking out." said a now clearly excited John. "Permission to take my team through the gate and see about getting us some ZPMs, Ma'am?"

"Permission granted."

* * *

><p><strong>Somewhere in the ruins of D.C….<strong>

Kat swore as a veritable hailstorm of bullets flew by her head and blew chunks out of the old cement wall behind her, nearly scraping the top of her helmet. Honestly, this was getting old fast. First it was super mutants, then Brotherhood of Steel stragglers, and now raiders. It almost seemed like the Wasteland itself was conspiring against her. Her life after leaving the Vault seemed to consist solely of firefights, heated negotiations followed by more firefights and the occasional confrontation with what seemed every mutated animal in the wastes, simultaneously.

"I've had just about enough of this shit. This is the third time I've been ambushed this week. Raiders just don't know when to quit, the stupid bastards."

She turned to the green robot hovering beside her, "Sarge, cook these dumb SOBs."

"Sir Yes Sir! Order received and confirmed. Firing thrusters for effect. When you worthless junkies get to hell, tell them Sergeant RL-3 sent you!" With that, the olive colored robot flew above the crumbling concrete barrier and let loose with his flamethrower into a group of roughly twenty raiders who were in the process of reloading their weapons, firing their weapons into the air while yelling loudly, or making lewd gestures – or a varying combination of those things.

Flames sprouted from several of the robot's "arms" and quickly engulfed the raiders. Several attempted to shoot the mechanical construct to no effect but quickly turned tail and fled after the first few of their comrades fell twitching to the ground in flames while screaming in agony, a few were cut down after the robot quickly switched to its long range plasma blasters but most managed to escape into the relative safety of the nearby ruins.

By this time, Kat had circled around the barrier herself and taken out half a dozen raiders with pinpoint precision shots from her Enclave issue plasma rifle, one of which simply disintegrated into a pile of green hued ash. "Sarge, body count!" She barked while putting one of the screaming, still on fire raiders out of their misery with a quick plasma blast to the head.

"Approximately 10 KIA, and two wounded." **The sound of two plasma bursts fired in quick succession is heard**_._ "Make that 12 KIA, Sir."

"Damn, that means slightly under half of them got away. Our orders are clear Sarge, this sector is to be completely raider, mutie, and Brotherhood free by sundown, did you see where they ran off to?" said a frustrated sounding Kat.

"According to the general direction in which they were heading, I'd say our best bet would be the Museum of Technology, Sir." The robot was hovering in mid-air above several charred raider corpses, weapon holding appendages twitching slightly. While most robots were supposedly bereft of human emotions, Kat swore that RL-3 downright enjoyed killing things, and was determined to find out for sure one day if she ever got any downtime. Her caps were on it being a side effect of RL-3's experimental personality.

"Then that's where we're headed. No doubt they'll attempt some sort of half-assed ambush in the lobby if at least one of them has any functional brain cells left in their drug addled cranium."

"Do you have a plan, Sir?" RL-3 was practically bouncing up and down, which is quite the feat for someone who's only means of transportation is a jet thruster.

Kat paused for a moment before replying, "I figure with my power armor and your heavy armored plating the standard 'blast open the doors and shoot anything that moves' plan will suffice. Their small arms fire shouldn't be able to do much more than irritate either of us before we cut them to pieces."

"Affirmative Sir! And if I may say so Sir, it has been one hell of a glorious day in this man's army!"

"That it has, Sarge, that it has. Now let's get a move on, they're serving salisbury steak tonight in the mess hall and I don't want to be late."


	2. Explosive Entrance

**More Author's Notes!**

Quick question to anyone reading my story: Should I use italics for speech/thought to distinguish it from the rest? Would it make it easier to read? I notice that a lot of people do that, but I'm not sure if I want to do it is well.

Also, sorry for the delay! I originally meant to post this second chapter three days after the first but just didn't get around to it due to work and other concerns. Chapter three will be out by either Wednesday or Thursday of this week, you have my word. Maybe even earlier if you get lucky, but don't count on it, as I'm working 11 hour shifts Monday-Wednesday.

Oh, and last but not least - this is what I had on my mind when I mentioned the "march of glory" song.

y o u t u b e .com/watch?v=f_6AQA4uzD0

(It isn't illegal to posts links, is it? I've seen other people do it)

Definitely something I can see the Sarge loving.

* * *

><p><strong>In the Museum of Technology –<strong>

With the usual accompanying "fwoosh" sound, the Stargate shut off.

"Well… this is different," said an amused John Sheppard.

What had appeared to be the inside of just another withered, hollowed out husk of a building through the M.A.L.P. was clearly something else entirely, now that the team was viewing it from the inside.

"Huh - a museum, that's new." Said John. "I remember reading a sg-1 mission report where they came out of the Gate right in the middle of a museum exhibit that was still under construction."

"Ah, I remember reading that one myself." Replied Rodney. "They showed up in the middle of a fancy party and got mistaken for terrorists; it was like something you'd see in a corny science fiction movie."

Sheppard rolled his eyes at this, "Rodney, we're in another galaxy fighting space vampires that suck the life out of you with the palm of their hands, and traveling to other planets is done by stepping through one gigantic stone ring and popping out through another on a different world."

"Point taken." Muttered Rodney in reply, with both Teyla and Ronon chuckling behind him. "Regardless," said Rodney, gesturing all around himself with his hands, "I don't think we'll be interrupting any parties in this place – it doesn't look like anyone's been here in decades, maybe longer. Honestly, I'm surprised the lights are still on."

Looking around the room, it was clear to everyone on the team that Rodney was right. Not only was almost half the room blocked by rubble due to a caved in ceiling, but there was a visible layer of dust on nearly everything around them. What little wallpaper that remained was heavily cracked, and crumbled into nothing when disturbed. The few doors that led out from the room were mostly collapsed, with only one that looked even remotely intact being on the second floor up the last non-collapsed stairwell. An antiquated space satellite of some sort took up the majority of the floor space, with a few other obviously ancient mechanical devices sitting in various spots in the room with they're accompanying bronze exhibit plaques.

"Damn," thought Sheppard, "Are there any places the Wraith _haven't_ destroyed that aren't filled with killer robots, overly paranoid bunker-city dwellers, or peacenik wannabe ascended types? It seems like every time they found some group of people that were even remotely advanced, they either didn't want to help, hated us almost as much as the Wraith, or simply didn't care about anyone but themselves, and that's only _if_ the Wraith haven't wiped them out. The Pegasus galaxy – your one stop shop for the biggest stuck up jerks in the universe!"

Sheppard caught Ronon gesturing at something out of the corner of his eye, breaking him out of his momentary reverie.

"Sheppard, over here."

Following Ronon's gaze Sheppard could see what appeared to be a dimly lit computer terminal. "McKay, get over here!"

"What is it?" said an irate McKay, who had ambled over from his examination of the replica mid-50s era-esque space craft that dominated the center of the room they were in. The annoyed look on his face vanished the second he spotted the computer. Rodney quickly ran over to it, nearly shoving Ronon and Sheppard out of the way, and began trying to access whatever information it held. "Wow, it was a miracle that the lights were still on but a working computer? That should be impossible." Rodney paused for a second, wiping sweat off of his forehead, "Though you'd think that if the computers were still working, the air conditioning would be as well – I'm practically dissolving in here."

"Apparently not," said Sheppard, rolling his eyes along with Ronon, "Does it say anything useful?"

Rodney turned away from the computer with a disappointed look on his face, "Aside from confirming that this is indeed a museum, no. There's just a short entry on the exhibits in this room. From what we've seen so far I'd say they're a bit ahead of the Genii, technologically speaking, but still decades behind us. Not to mention the fact that my scanner hasn't picked up any energy signatures that are even remotely likely to be emanating from a zero point module, so I say we should stop wasting time and dial up the Stargate before we melt to death in this blistering inferno."

Sheppard was about to reply when Teyla stepped forward and offered an opinion of her own.

"Rodney, this is a museum. So it stands to reason that the people who used to inhabit this planet might have been more technologically advanced than the few relics in this room might indicate, does it not?" asked Teyla. "Even if they are not, there's still the chance that a ZPM could be somewhere on this planet."

"I suppose you could be right, however unlikely that may be." muttered McKay.

"I agree with Teyla, let's not jump to any conclusions when we haven't even left the room, Rodney." Said Sheppard. "Let's see what else is in this place before we call it quits."

And with that, the group headed up the stairwell and emerged through the rickety door into a room that spanned several floors, and was centered on a very large rocket of some kind. However, the technological feat in front of them wasn't what caught their attention. Instead, it was the decaying corpse of what appeared to be a large, heavily muscled, barely clothed human-shaped corpse with yellow skin and a decapitated head lying several feet away.

"Ok… so not completely wiped out by the Wraith. Also, I think I'm going to be sick." said Rodney, his face rapidly taking on a yellow-greenish hue of its own.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before, Teyla?" asked a rather disturbed looking Sheppard.

"I have neither seen nor heard of anything that looks like… that, before." said an equally disturbed looking Teyla.

"It looks like it's been dead for at least a few weeks." said Ronon, as he bent down to inspect the corpse, his face maintaining the same disinterested look he'd had since they came through the Stargate.

"That's only if whatever that thing is decomposes at the same rate as humans do." commented Sheppard. "Well, at least now we know that this planet isn't completely deserted. Let's keep moving, and hope that whoever did this is long gone."

"Woah woah, hold up." said Rodney. "I just got a bunch of life signs moving into range of the life signs detector. Looks like around nine or ten."

"Where, and are they human or… whatever that thing is?" asked Sheppard.

"Two floors down and roughly 100 feet north. As for whether or not they're human… this thing only differentiates between humans and Wraith. So while they're definitely not Wraith, I have no idea if they're human or not." replied Rodney.

"Alright," said Sheppard, "Let's go check it out."

The team descended one level and proceeded to head north, as the scanner showed that the group of life signs was in a relatively large multi-level room of some sort. As they reached the double doors which led into the room where the life signs were clustered together, Sheppard signaled for Teyla and Rodney to take the right side of the doors while he and Ronon crouched next to the opposite side. Sheppard was just about signal his team to enter the room when they started hearing agitated voices coming from behind the doors, it sounded like two people were having a heated argument. He quickly held up a hand to signal the rest of the team to hold their positions.

"_I can't believe this shit! Who's brilliant fucking idea was it to attack that Enclave asshole in the first place?"_ _came from what sounded like a man's voice._

_"Shut the hell up Kal! What's done is done and we need to get the ambush set for when that power armor wearing piece of shit and its crazy robot show up or we're fucked! Your whining isn't going to solve shit. Either we kill him or we wind up as charcoal." replied what was obviously a woman._

"_Who died and made you Queen Bitch, Lynn? Rico's the head of this gang, not you."_

"_Are you still hopped up on med-x? Rico stopped being leader when he got turned into a pile of radioactive ash you dumb bastard. I was his second, and that makes me the leader now, you got a problem with that?"_

"_You bet your ass I do! You weren't his second, you were his whore. I'm in charge of this gang now, and I say we get the hell out of here." _

"_You'll lead this gang over my dead body Kal," the woman snarled._

"_Gladly." _

Even from behind closed doors, the sound of a gun being cocked was unmistakable. John was about to signal his team to move in, but that was when all hell suddenly decided to break loose.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

To say Kat was angry at the moment would be quite the understatement. What should have been a quick jaunt was rapidly turning into a long, drawn out hunt, and for nothing but a mangy group of half-sane drugged up raiders. While necessary, it was also a huge damned waste of time as far as she was concerned. More importantly – if this took any longer all that delicious salisbury steak would be gone by the time she got back to base camp!

"I swear Sarge, for a robot your sense of direction is complete and utter shit. We circled the same damned ruined building three times before you realized that we were following mole rat tracks instead of those raiders! If you weren't such a crack shot I'd have you melted down for scrap metal."

"Sir this robot is deeply apologetic, Sir. I shall endeavor to do better and will forgo my usual post victory celebration of playing the 'Auroran March to Glory' over my speakers as penance, once we deal with the rest of those heathen junkies." RL-3 replied.

"Can it Sarge. It's my fault deciding to follow their tracks instead of heading directly for the museum. Besides, we're going to be done here in a minute anyways so there's no use moping about something we can't undo." Kat said, as she looked towards the tall building looming directly in front of them.

"Does this mean I can play the 'Auroran March to Glory' after the battle, Sir?" said RL-3, sounding about as excited as a robot can sound.

"Sure, sure, but let's stop for a minute. I need to get Vengeance and a grenade or two out of your storage unit before we head into the museum."

Vengeance was one of Kat's most prized possessions. A customized gatling laser, it was one of the deadliest pre-war weapons in the Wasteland that she'd managed to get her hands on. Capable of putting out over twenty rounds per second, not even a wild pack of Deathclaws stood a chance against the withering hellfire that this gun produced. Definitely her mid range weapon of choice.

"Alright Sarge, here's how we're going to do this. You'll blast the doors open with a plasma burst followed by me chucking a plasma grenade through the doorway, and then we'll both unload with everything we've got on anything that's still standing, crouching or cowering on two legs and not wearing Enclave issue power armor."

"Excellent plan Sir! We'll put our boots so far up those junkie bastards' asses that they'll be coughing up boot polish for weeks. Or they would, if they weren't going to be dead shortly thereafter." RL-3 was his usual enthusiastic self.

"Riiight... Anyways lets just get this over with so we can head back to base, I'm starving."

With that, Kat took her position to the side of the museum's entrance and waited for RL-3 to blast open the doors with his plasma gun.

"Weapons hot, Sir! Let's do this! For Aurora!"

RL-3's onboard targeting systems locked on to the appropriate section of the doorway and let loose with an overcharged plasma burst. The doorway burst into a thousand shards of glass and wooden splinters.

Kat quickly chucked a plasma grenade inside the doorway and waited for the gigantic explosion of green death and the accompanying screams of agony to occur. Which they promptly did.

"Damn they're loud," thought Kat as a large multitude of screams reached her ears. She rapidly moved to the collapsed entrance with RL-3, "must have hit more than a few of them with that grenade."

Both Kat and RL-3 blanketed the lobby with laser and plasma fire, green and red bolts crossing each other and snuffing out the life of any raider unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire. Within a minute the firing stopped, as well as the screaming.

"Cease fire Sarge, I think we got 'em all." grunted Kat, as she surveyed the museum's lobby. "Well, that was about as easy as I thought it would be."

"Yes Sir! It certainly was, Sir!" barked RL-3 in reply, before he abruptly swiveled 180 degrees without warning and started hovering towards the staircase to the left of the lobby. "My internal radar indicates we've got a total of four hostiles hiding behind the doorway on the second floor Sir!"

"Confirmed on my PipBoy Sarge, hang back, I'll handle this." Kat stowed her gatling laser on her back and pulled out her trusty multi-plas rifle from her leg holster. Ah, the multi-plas rifle, the energy weapon equivalent of a double barreled shotgun. Or in this case, a triple barreled shotgun that spewed out green plasma balls of death instead of buckshot.

Kat flipped up the volume on her power armor's helmet speaker to amplify her mechanical sounding gender neutral voice to higher levels. "Your friends are dead and I know where you're hiding, you raider scum. Come out with your hands up and you might just make it out of this building alive, decline my most generous offer and I'll have my robot companion here slow roast you with his flamethrower for the better part of several hours. You have thirty seconds to decide."

At this, RL-3 could be heard firing a few quick bursts of his flamethrower into the air for effect.

Naturally, Kat had no intention of keeping her part of the bargain. This was simply an attempt to get through another firefight without getting any more scratches on her power armor. Raiders were nothing but evil, murderous, raping scumbags, and as far as she was concerned, shooting them on sight was doing the rest of the Wasteland a favor. No matter what they did, those raiders were as good as dead.

On the plus side of things, Kat's mood was finally starting to improve. One way or another, she'd be heading back to the base for some delicious food within the next two minutes. She almost felt like humming as she checked to make sure her multi-plas rifle was fully loaded.

* * *

><p>On the other side of the double doors on the second floor, the Atlantis team members looked at one another. The explosions that had knocked them off their feet, along with the gunfire and accompanying screams hadn't exactly escaped their notice.<p>

"I think we've got a problem…" said Sheppard.


	3. Uneasy Truce

**A Glorious Day In This Man's Wasteland: Chapter 3**

* * *

><p>Sorry for the extra long delay, this chapter is extra big to compensate. It's actually been done for well over a week, but I've been… busy. Especially in the last day or so with Old World Blues. Of which there is one minor reference in this chapter, but it will probably be referenced extensively in the next chapter or two – so play it if you haven't already.<p>

Fun Fact: My New Vegas level 41 character has 10 in every stat except for perception – which is 9, and luck – which is 4. It's hilarious. She's also a freakin' cyborg. Much like Kat. All of her skills are also at 100, with the exception of unarmed and melee weapons. This is without having started on ANY of the main 'you must pick this side' storyline quests.

**Tech Information, Abbreviations and other Misc. Information:**

**Standard Enclave Power Armor:**

The power armor currently used in the Capitol wasteland area by the Enclave is an improved variant of the MK II Power Armor that was previously developed by the Enclave for use in the Core Region(California and the surrounding area) before the Poseidon Oil Rig was blown up and Navarro was overrun, forcing the Enclave to flee. While the suit boasts of giving both increased strength and agility to wearers, the matte black paint job and glowing orange eyes tend to have a slightly negative effect on one's charisma. (+2, +1, -1)

In addition, the suit is fitted with a voice regulator that effectively makes it impossible to tell the wearer's gender.

**ICS -**

**Internal Communication System:** An internal sophisticated radio system installed in every powered armor suit, with the exception of the old t-45d suits. Can be used to communicate with anyone wearing power armor, robots, and standard radios - while remaining completely silent to any outside observer who happens to be standing nearby. All Enclave robots are fitted with one of these as well. Standard robots can receive the transmissions as they would a normal radio communication, but cannot reply back silently as an Enclave robot would.

A classified function of this device, known only to a select few, is that it can also be used to listen in and/or record conversations of any individual in possession of the ICS.

**Enclave Military Rankings**(if you know where I'm getting some of the ranks from, good for you)**:**

President/Commander in Chief - Archon

Chief of Staff - First Council

General - Arch-Strategos

Colonel - Commander

Lieutenant - Stays the same.

Major - Centurion

Sergeant - Stays the same.

Corporal - Monitor

Private - Citizen

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3: Uneasy Truce<strong>

* * *

><p>The door slowly creaked open.<p>

"Alright, don't shoot - we're coming out." came a voice from the other side of the door

***Kat switched over to her suit's ICS*** "Remember Sarge, don't start shooting until I do."

"Affirmative, Sir!"

Kat winced, she really needed to get RL-3's chassis fitted with an Enclave ICS as soon as she could. Watching Sarge break cover to barrel after enemies while yelling anti-communalist pre-war slogans was bad enough, having him practically announce to everyone in the room that she was giving him covert orders was just plain embarrassing.

The sight of four still armed figures walking cautiously with weapons raised out from behind the set of double doors interrupted Kat's inner monologue.

"I didn't think that 'come out with your hands up' was particularly difficult to understand, even for raiders," quipped Kat, leveling her rifle at the group but not firing. Something was wrong, they didn't look like raiders, they were far too clean and well equipped for that. They didn't look chemmed up and she didn't recognize them from the group that had ambushed her earlier either . A quick visual survey of the corpses littering the ground on the floor below confirmed that every raider was accounted for. Merc backup? Not likely. Mercenaries hated raiders as much as anyone else, and the standard wasteland procedure for everyone when encountering raiders was 'shoot first, ask questions never, spit on corpse.'

Kat's mind was working furiously. _Matching uniforms and similar weapons(aside from the big guy). Not raiders then, but the similar insignia on two of the three uniforms means that they're unlikely to be mercs either. The only reasonable explanation is that they belong to a military of some sort, and I don't recognize the symbols. This could be bad. At least most of those weapons look like they fire bullets instead of high energy plasma. Except for the one the large tribal's holding. _She was about to demand their names and ranks when one of them, presumably the leader(who was quite the looker, Kat had to admit) stepped forward and volunteered the information.

* * *

><p>A massive explosion rocked the building, shaking dust off the walls and causing tiny bits of the ceiling to fall to the ground. Sheppard and his team, aside from Ronon, who managed to brace himself against a wall, were knocked off his feet.<p>

"What the hell was th-," Sheppard stopped in mid-sentence as screams came from the other side of the double doors, followed by what sounded like multiple discharges of an energy weapon.

"Sheppard." A clearly disturbed Rodney McKay was looking up from his life sign detector with a grimace on his face. "There's only one life sign left in that room."

Sheppard was about to reply when a loud, mechanical sounding voice boomed out from behind the doors and delivered an ultimatum.

"We're not really going to walk out there without our guns, are we Sheppard?" Ronon had a scowl plastered on his face. "Whoever's out there just killed ten or more people."

"I agree with Ronon, I believe that in this case relinquishing our weapons would be most unwise." Teyla looked more disturbed then annoyed.

"I vote we make a beeline for the Stargate and get off of this planet, who's with me?" said Rodney.

"Of course we're not giving up our guns, but we're not just running away either," said Sheppard who pointedly looked at Rodney while he talked. "We all go out together, but no one fires a shot unless I say so."

With a nod from both Ronon and Teyla and a mumbled curse from Rodney, Sheppard signaled his team to move out. Guns aimed forward, they pushed past the doors as a team and came face to face with a humanoid shaped metal suit and a flying, no make that hovering... something.

Whatever was in the suit had quickly leveled its gun at Sheppard. _At least it hasn't fired yet, Sheppard thought to himself._ That was when the mechanical sounding voice spoke up again, apparently just to insult them. Sheppard had no idea what a raider was, but one glance at the recently dismembered corpses on the floor below quickly made him realize that it was probably in his team's best interests to inform the metal suit wearing monster that he and his team were not 'raiders.'

"My name is Lt. Colonel John Sheppard. The big guy to my right is called Ronon, she's Teyla and the one hiding behind Ronon is Rodney," said Sheppard, gesturing towards each of his team members in turn. "We're explorers, not raiders - whatever that means."

"You don't know what raiders are? You're either lying or you aren't from around here, but ok, I'll humor you. Raiders are gangs of petty murderers and thieves that spend their days getting high, followed by killing, mutilating and then raping any innocent people they can get their filthy hands on - and not particularly in that order," replied the distorted voice. "Your rank sounds military, but doesn't match up with any group I've ever heard of , and you definitely aren't Enclave. Assuming you aren't lying, and you'd better not be - I hate liars - where are you from and what are you doing snooping around Enclave controlled territory?"

"First, we were exploring, not snooping," came a heated reply from Sheppard. "Secondly, we really aren't from around here. In fact, we're not even from this world."

The suit was silent for a few seconds before replying, "Funny, I don't remember seeing a spaceship on top of the building before I blasted my way inside."

"That's because we didn't come in a spaceship, we came through the Stargate," said Sheppard.

"My people and many others know it as the Ancestral Ring," added Teyla.

"Can't say that I've ever heard of either."

"Stone looking ring with strange symbols on it, about this high," cut in McKay, gesturing with his arms. "In one of your museum exhibits in west wing, near the antique space satellite."

"Ah. I wondered what that thing was for. Before the war broke out, all our scientists had managed to figure out with any degree of certainty was that it was somehow related to the Atlanteans. That's pretty much as far as they got with any of the relics, actually. Well, that's what the exhibit computers said anyways, don't much care for pre-war goodies that aren't body armor or weaponry myself."

Whoever was in the suit shrugged as much as a person wearing a metal suit could. Which was surprisingly a good deal.

"You know about the Ancients?" Rodney had a very excited look on his face. "And you said there were other relics? Say, you wouldn't happen to have an orange crys-"

* * *

><p>"Atlanteans yes, '<em>Ancients<em>,' no," Kat said, cutting the man called Rodney off. Definitely a scientist, they never knew when to shut their damn mouths. A standoff is not a good time for casual conversation about pre-war archeological finds. "Like I said, our scientists were studying the ring and other relics they left behind before the Great War broke out. After that, studying the past of a dead race wasn't exactly a top priority. The ring was the only thing left in the museum. The other relics were moved somewhere else before the bombs hit, apparently they left the ring for last because it was so damned big."

"Hold on a minute, Great War? Bombs? What are you talking about?" Sheppard seemed to be the one asking all the questions, which was fine with Kat. She had this nagging feeling that if she was forced to talk to one he called Rodney for more than five minutes she'd end up strangling him, which was never good when you're trying to make an excellent first impression.

"You must really be from another planet if you don't know about the War." Kat took a few seconds to once again contemplate the four individuals in front of her. The three wearing matching uniforms obviously belonged to some sort of organized military unit or mercenary group. The big one called Ronon, now that she had gotten a closer look at him, looked like an overdressed tribal with a facial expression that mirrored their typical attitude of twenty-four seven hostility.

They probably wouldn't be able to harm her overly much if things got hostile, but she didn't recognize whatever energy weapon the tribal was holding in his hands - and that was never a good sign. Thinking you **might** be able to take a direct hit from an energy weapon was an excellent way to get yourself killed, and a common mistake among those new to wearing the improved Enclave power armor. A properly calibrated gauss rifle could kill a man wearing older power armor in one well placed shot, as long as it hit him anywhere above the waistline. The 2mm round wasn't enough do much more than dent MKII Power Armor where it was at its thickest, but the kinetic force of a shot was more than enough to snap a man's neck, or dislodge it entirely if it hit the neck area where the plating was weaker. Known energy weapons in general were just plain dangerous to be on the receiving end of, but taking a shot from an unknown energy weapon on purpose was just plain stupid. Kat doubted she could avoid getting hit more than once at this range if a fire fight broke out. Especially since the brute holding said energy weapon seemed to be the one most on his guard out of the four.

Kat carefully considered her options. She could risk getting torn into tiny bits and pieces by unknown hostiles in the middle of nowhere, or she could play along until she found out who they really were and what they were doing in Enclave territory. While Kat was no stranger to aliens(or spaceships for that matter), having slaughtered more than her fair share when she was abducted by a group of the buggers after responding to a fake distress beacon(hah, you'd think the whole vault situation would have taught her not to bother performing random acts of kindness, they always came back to bite you in the ass) - the individuals in front of her were nothing like the little gray... things she had butchered. There was no harm to be had in pretending to buy their story.. at least until she had a sizable amount of backup to dissuade any notions of violence on their part. Kat activated her ICS and sent out a short, encrypted double burst communication to the nearest Enclave comm relay, ordering both a vertibird extraction for her and four others, as well as two six-man quick insertion squads incase this little chat turned ugly and she needed backup. The other message was an audio log of the past few minutes of conversation sent directly to Eden's private line, she knew it would take mere seconds for the A.I. to go through it.

Kat silently chuckled, knowing that Commander Autumn would blow a fuse over her requisitioning three of the Enclave's valuable vertibirds. While Autumn was unofficially still in charge of the Enclave military, Kat was relegated to the role usually filled by multiple tactical nuclear warheads and she liked it that way, despite her higher official rank. Still, always getting what she wanted due to her pull with Eden and Autumn's sense of honor(her choosing to not mention his attempted coup at the water purifier before she had talked him out of it had no doubt spared his life - something she loved to remind Autumn of every chance she got) was very, very nice.. Though as much as she loved giving Autumn a hard time, she had no intentions of ever taking over his job despite the fact that Eden had abundantly made it clear that as his second in command, she could have any military posting she wanted. Desk jobs were simply too boring for her. Having the rank and not the responsibilities that typically came along with it suited her just fine. It was also better for the Enclave, as her role of Arch-Strategos came in handy when it came time for negotiations. There's nothing like threatening to send in the most well known killing machine on the continent to do the negotiating when things weren't going your way. Ah well, at least the Enclave's diplomats loved her.

Kat suddenly realized that she was being stared at - she really needed to stop reminiscing in the middle of potentially fatal situations.

She cleared her throat, "Ah, right. Long story short, two nations got into a spat about ideology over two centuries ago and decided that the best way to settle their argument on who was right by lobbing hundreds of nuclear weapons at one another. Now everyone today is paying the price for their stupidity. The Aurorans, that would be us, were(or are, if the Enclave had anything to say about it - and boy, did they ever) a militaristic bunch who took pride in our individualism and complete loyalty to the state. The Communalists took loyalty to the state to extreme levels, to the point of believing that individual rights were unimportant - and that the only thing that mattered was the well-being of the community as a whole. They were blasted hypocrites though, the sore losers launched the first nukes when it became apparent that they were losing the ground war to superior Auroran troops. I am of course simplifying things, but I'm not a historian and to be honest I don't really care all that much."

"Where does this Enclave of yours fit into it," asked Sheppard, not looking entirely convinced.

"The Enclave is made up of people directly descended from the government and our best and brightest who saw what was coming and managed to not only survive, but to thrive. We're currently in the process of unifying the continent under our rule, which includes purging vicious raider gangs like the one you just saw. The Enclave is the Auroran people, and through them we will all reclaim our former glory," replied Kat. Eden would no doubt have been proud of her oratory skills had he been there - not that he could be, what with being a computer and not even having emotions(some things Eden said often had her wondering if that was actually the case as fully self-aware, sentient AIs had only just been developed when the war broke out, and finding out whether or not they had emotions wasn't exactly a top priority when you were attempting to get them to determine the optimal places to detonate a nuclear warhead for the highest fatality rates). Though it occurred to Kat that he might just be listening in through her suit's ICS system. She decided to check.

"Eden, are you there?"

"I am. Very nice speech, by the way. You put me to shame."

"Thank you Sir, orders?"

"Your initial plan for bringing them to the nearest Enclave base was an excellent decision. However, I wish to see these individuals at once. Escort them to Phoenix Point, as my guests."

Kat understood the implications of that last statement at once. She didn't like it one damned bit.

"Sir, with all due respect, we have no idea if they can be trusted. For all we know this could be an elaborate NCR trick. and -"

"What do you think the chances of that are?"

"... Less than 10%, Sir."

A virtual chuckle(no doubt for her benefit) was heard. Kat rolled her eyes. "Right as always - as expected of my second in command, though it's 7.83% to be exact."

"Still, at the very least I'm going to have to strongly recommend that they be disarmed before being allowed anywhere near you. Unless you want Commander Autumn to blow a coronary. Which I'd love to see, by the way."

"Naturally, and don't be crude - it doesn't suit you. You will also escort the one called Sheppard to meet with me personally."

"Alright. The vertibirds should reach our location in less than ten minutes, at which point it will take us approximately fifteen minutes to reach Phoenix."

"Very well, I shall await your arrival. Eden out."

* * *

><p>Sheppard stared at the suit, which had been silent for several minutes after delivering what sounded a lot like old Earth propaganda from the 30s and 40s. It didn't take a genius to figure out that whoever was in that suit was probably communicating with someone. Sheppard decided that now would be a good time to break the silence, and hopefully get his team off this irradiated rock without having to shoot their way through a museum. They could always come back with the USS Daedalus or even attempt radio contact through the gate with whatever government ran this world.<p>

"That sounds great and all, but if you don't mind we'd really just like to be on our way. Without shooting each other, if at all possible."

"I'm afraid it's not. I've been ordered to escort you to our Capitol as guests by Archon Eden, our leader. Though I'd also like to do so without any shooting being involved. What do you say?"

"Well as much as I'd love to walk aro-"

"No walking, we'll be taking a vertibird. It's a machine that flies through the air. A very fast one at that, it shaves a 12 hour trip down to 15 minutes."

"Be that as it may, I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable taking a ride anywhere with someone I just met who's covered in the blood of over half a dozen people that they just killed."

"We've been over that. Raiders bad, Enclave good. Regardless, I feel equally uncomfortable escorting a bunch of humans wearing military uniforms and carrying lots of weaponry while claiming not only to be explorers, but aliens as well, to where my people's leader is. If it were up to me, you'd have been stunned and taken back to a military base while unconscious, and would have woken up in a restraining field."

"Well I'm glad it's not up to you, then."

Whoever was in the suit made a snorting sound. "Look, I dislike long, drawn out negotiations so I'll make this short and simple for you. You have two choices. Option one, you surrender your weapons when our transportation and my backup arrive - and we all have a nice, uneventful flight back to our base where you'll get to meet our leader. Option two, we see whether your weapons are powerful enough to kill me and Sarge here before we kill you. These terms are not negotiable, but personally I'm really hoping you pick option one. I'd hate to put a hole in that pretty face of yours."

"You really are Kirk, you know that?"

"Shut up, Rodney." Sheppard wasn't really sure how to reply to that last bit, as he hadn't bit hit on by someone wearing a metal suit before. _Human aliens? Check. Ascended energy being posing as a goddesses? Also check. Roughly human shaped armored metal suits? Not so much._ "You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?"

"I don't know how they do things in this 'expedition' that you're supposedly from, but Enclave soldiers carry out their orders - or die trying. So no, I'm not."

Sheppard sighed, a firefight breaking out when they were so close to one another meant that there would be no avoiding casualties on either side, and that wasn't something he was prepared to accept. "Alright, we'll go with you." He started laying down his weapon when the person in the suit held up a metal gloved hand.

"No no, you can hold on to that for now. I have no intention of hauling around your antiques for you, so you can hold on to your weapons and other ordinance until my backup arrives to carry it for you. My days of lugging around several hundred pounds of junk are far behind me."

"That's rather trusting of you."

"Not really," the suit made a shrugging motion again, "when my backup arrives you'll be both outgunned and outnumbered, I'm not terribly worried that you'll try to start anything at that point. No, if you were going to attempt to blast your way out of this you'd do it now, or else none of you are as smart as you look. Even the balding one."

"Hey, I take offense to that!" Rodney exclaimed.

"Now isn't the time McKay." Sheppard gave him the look he reserved for when things were serious.

McKay went silent after grumbling a few times under his breath and subsequently getting glared again at by Sheppard. After which everyone became aware of what sounded almost exactly like a helicopter rotor. Several of them, in fact.

"That would be our ride."

* * *

><p><em>Finally<em>, thought Kat,_ it's about time. I've been been out here for well over a day, I hope they brought coffee. Though given my horrible luck, it's infinitely more likely that Autumn himself decided to hop on a vertibird to personally bitch at me for "misuse of Enclave resources," or whatever._

Twelve heavily armed power armor wearing Enclave troops quickly and efficiently filtered into the museum and surrounded Sheppard and his team. A familiar and rather agitated looking blond haired woman wearing an Enclave officer uniform complete with trench coat and permanent scowl followed them in and walked straight up to Kat.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Why Lt. Veric, how nice to see you." _Ha! I was close. Not Autumn, but his favorite lackey of the week instead. Ah well, at least she's easier on the eyes than he is. I also don't have to pretend like I care._

"Drop the act, Greene. You know why I'm here."

"Because vertibirds give poor Commander Autumn a tummy ache, no doubt. Oh, and that's Arch-Strategos Greene to you, by the way. You can keep what was obviously going to be an insubordinate rant to yourself, and I'll pretend like I didn't know you were about to perform a court martial-able offense."

Veric's face went from slightly red tinged to full blown crimson. _Hmmm, not bad. If she wasn't Autumn's pet I wouldn't mind having a go at th-_ Kat's libidinous thoughts were quickly interrupted by a loud crashing sound followed by a yell from one of her troopers.

Apparently the big one named Ronon hadn't taken kindly to an Enclave trooper grabbing his weapon, and had responded by kicking him square in the chest hard enough to knock him over._ Impressive that he could do that to someone wearing power armor, he must be one strong son of a bitch. _The others had quickly leveled their guns at Ronon and Sheppard's team, though most of them were pointed in Ronon's direction.

Kat brushed past a sputtering Veric and held her hand up. "Sheppard, I thought we had an agreement. Do you really want to start something **now**?"

"No, **we** don't. Ronon was just about to hand over his weapon to the nice man. Isn't that right Ronon?"

"No." The tribal had a look on his face which stated that he was clearly unwilling to hand over his weapon peacefully far more than any words ever would have.

Kat looked over the rest of Sheppard's team to make sure they were already disarmed. Seeing that they were, she gave herself an injection of turbo from one of her many sub-dermal implants. Feeling the effects of the drug kick in she immediately decided the best way to take the tribal down, after which she promptly jumped forward quicker than anyone's eyes could follow and sent the big guy flying into the nearest wall before he could react, where he quickly slumped to the ground unconscious. This all took place in the space of less than three seconds. _Thank god for strength enhancing power armor and extensive cybernetic implants. _She looked at the trooper who was just picking himself up off the ground. "Citizen, you may relieve the tribal of his weapon now."

Before said trooper could utter an affirmative the woman called Teyla had already run over to Ronon and was apparently checking his vitals for signs of life. "He's still breathing," she called out to the others.

Sheppard, meanwhile, was giving Kat one hell of a hate filled glare. "What the hell was that?"

Kat shrugged again. "Don't worry, I'm sure he's fine. I didn't feel anything crack and if I meant to kill him he'd be dead. The alternative was shooting him, so don't get mad at me because he wouldn't follow **your** orders."

"Fair enough," he replied brusquely. _Bah, men are so emotional. _

"Sheppard and McKay you're riding back with me. Teyla and Ronon will each be on one of the other vertibirds." Kat turned back to Veric with a malicious grin hidden behind her helmet. "Lt. Veric, you get to go back on the bird carrying the over-sized tribal, and if he suffers any undue harm on the way to Phoenix Point, so will you."

Veric walked away with several troopers who were attempting to carry Ronon's body without actually touching it, something that was proving quite difficult. Kat heard the woman mumble "vault dweller trash" under her breath as she stomped away, just loud enough for Kat and those standing nearby to hear. Kat responded by turning up her helmet's speakers over several notches and belching loudly.

She turned around and walked out of the building, letting Sheppard and McKay follow behind her.


End file.
